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Christian Horner has revealed that attention at Red Bull is already beginning to turn to their 2024 car, with 15 races still to go in 2023. The team have won seven races out of seven to begin the campaign, with the RB19 proving to be the dominant force on the grid and Max Verstappen leading the Drivers’ Championship by 53 points as it stands. Red Bull are already the runaway leaders in the Constructors’ Championship as well, with a tight fight behind breaking out already to be best of the rest – but both titles already look to be something of a foregone conclusion, barring a huge change in fortune. While the team’s penalty for breaching the 2021 budget cap will see Red Bull even less able to utilise their wind tunnel facilities compared to their rivals in 2023, the advantage they have over the rest of the field may make such a penalty seem immaterial at this moment in time, with the race behind being simply to catch up. If attention is turning to Red Bull’s 2024 challenger … [Read more...] about The Christian Horner reveal that spells both good and bad news for rivals

The most famous F1 teammate rivalry, that of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, took a while to bubble up after an amicable start at McLaren. While now well known as the best example of how competitive teammates can turn bitter and ruthless towards each other in their quests for individual glory, the start of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost’s relationship at the dominant McLaren team in 1988 actually proved quite straightforward. But, as the races ticked by, it seemed inevitable that, at some point, the two highly competitive drivers would develop a more strained dynamic, and McLaren’s Neil Oatley suspects two incidents in particular set off the domino effect that led to the all-out war that developed between Senna and Prost in their title deciders at Suzuka in 1989 and ’90. “It was good. I mean, there wasn’t really a lot of tension, particularly in ’88,” Oatley, Prost’s race engineer at McLaren that year, told the Beyond the Grid podcast about the first few months of Senna and Prost’s … [Read more...] about Alain Prost’s engineer reveals when Ayrton Senna tension began within McLaren garage

Toto Wolff is reportedly “not convinced” Mercedes’ new sidepod concept is better than the zero-pod design but the team changed it anyway, says F1 journalist Christian Menath. Having run a zero-pod design, dubbed that because of the lack of bulk to the sidepods, Mercedes won just one race in 28 in F1’s new ground effect aerodynamic era. But while the team stayed true to their philosophy even after last season’s disappointment, team boss Wolff conceded at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix that the team would probably not win a race without radical changes. Those changes included axing the zero-pods, although that wasn’t the only new part on the W14 at the Monaco Grand Prix with the team also introducing a new front suspension and floor. It’s the latter that from Motorsport-Magazin’s Menath believes it the key to Mercedes’ upturn in form. “What is a concept? You’ve heard that question from the Mercedes engineers quite a lot,” he said on the F1 Nation podcast. “They now have … [Read more...] about ‘Toto Wolff still not convinced the new Mercedes sidepod concept is the better one’

Toyota had seemed set to return to the top of the Le Mans timesheets for the first time since opening practice on Wednesday with Kamui Kobayashi heading the majority of the session. However, a late 3m26.579s from Antonio Fuoco in the #50 499P LMH smashed Kobayashi's best by almost a second. And, with eight minutes to go, Alessandro Pier Guidi set a 3m27.013s lap to go second, despite the #51 Ferrari having spent the first half of the three-hour session in the pits. The Toyota GR010 HYBRIDs were denied the chance to respond as a late full-course yellow, when Manuel Maldonado went off, hampered any further late improvements. Instead, Kobayashi had to settle for third in the #7 Toyota. Mathieu Jaminet in the #75 Porsche 963 LMDh was the initial pacesetter on a 3m28.454s but was soon usurped by the two Toyotas. Kobayashi claimed top spot with a 3m27.822s in the #7 car, before Sebastien Buemi went second in the sister #8 machine on 3m27.879s. However, Kobayashi … [Read more...] about Le Mans 24h: Ferrari locks out 1-2 ahead of Toyota in third practice

The team which has dominated the 2023 Formula 1 season so far introduced an update to its car last weekend which drew inspiration from a design used by the team currently at the bottom of the standings. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free Red Bull’s chief engineer of car engineering Paul Monaghan said the latest revision to the RB19’s diffuser follows a trend adopted by Williams, among other teams. The team increased the curvature of the edges of its diffuser in an update introduced at last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix in order to increase the downforce it generates. In the information it supplied to the FIA, Red Bull made a point of stating the change “took inspiration from competitor designs.” “You can’t assume that you have the best solution in all areas of the car when you first put your car on the ground,” Monaghan told media including RaceFans. “Our currency is lap time, isn’t it? “If you look that piece of floor design, that was out early 2022. I … [Read more...] about Red Bull’s Spanish GP diffuser update was ‘inspired by rivals’ including Williams · RaceFans

The Hendrick Motorsports machine was almost four seconds faster than the quickest GTE Am entry in Wednesday's opening qualifying session, despite the team's modest pre-event public predictions of being somewhere in the middle of the GTE Am pack. Instead, 2010 Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller posted a 3m47.976s lap that was only 8.5s slower than the lowest-ranked of the LMP2s. "I think we've progressed a lot and here we are qualifying four seconds quicker than all the GTE cars - I think it's a phenomenal effort by the whole team," said Button. "We came here thinking we'd be in the mix and, when the GTE cars get the amateur drivers in the car, we'd be able to be as quick as them - if not quicker - but we didn't expect to qualify four seconds in front of the quickest GTE car. "Everything has been spot on, all the homework that's been done by this team has been phenomenal and I would put it up there with one of the best teams I've raced with in the world." Rockenfeller said … [Read more...] about Button: NASCAR Le Mans qualifying pace exceeded expectations

Taking over the #51 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar that Alessandro Pier Guidi drove to second in Hyperpole, Calado whisked to a time of 3m27.275s shortly before Jean-Eric Vergne ’s #93 Peugeot 9X8 LMH brought out the red flags when it stopped between the two Mulsanne Chicanes. The one-hour session was restarted with 20 minutes still on the clock, but there were few noteworthy improvements thereafter as Calado’s benchmark time held. Calado was 1.003s faster than Esteban Gutierrez in the Le Mans-only #709 Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 that will start the World Endurance Championship blue riband from 14th. Gutierrez was in turn 0.162s faster than the Jota Porsche 963 LMDh campaigned by Will Stevens , which missed qualifying on Wednesday due to an electronic problem. Kevin Estre improved to fourth after the red flag in the best of the factory Penske-run Porsches, his #6 machine usurping the Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Alexander Sims . Jose Maria Lopez … [Read more...] about Le Mans 24h: Calado puts Ferrari top in final practice session

Red Bull have warned rivals that if they think an “ignorant” copy and paste of their RB19 floor will propel them up the order, then they should think again. Crashes for Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez during the Monaco Grand Prix weekend gave rivals a detailed look at the crucial undersides of those challengers as the crane hoisted them away from the circuit. Naturally, that left engineers from rival teams with plenty of photos to study for how they may be able to take inspiration for the floor on their respective cars, with Red Bull’s arguably of greatest interest considering their all-conquering form so far in F1 2023, having won all seven grands prix. McLaren team boss Andrea Stella has already said “hats off” to Red Bull for their work, though Red Bull’s chief engineer Paul Monaghan stressed that it is work which is successfully integrated into their package, and certainly not plug-and-play solutions. Red Bull then now wait to see the results of that … [Read more...] about Red Bull issue clear warning to rivals following RB19 floor reveal

Ferrari will lead the grid for the 100th anniversary Le Mans 24 Hours this weekend with its pair of 499P prototypes. Here is the full grid following the qualifying and hyperpole sessions. Pos No. Class Team Car Drivers Time 1 50 Hypercar (H) Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen 3’22.982 2 51 Hypercar (H) Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado/ Antonio Giovinazzi 3’23.755 3 8 Hypercar (H) Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 Sebastien Buemi / Brendon Hartley /Ryo Hirakawa 3’24.451 4 75 Hypercar (H) Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 Felipe Nasr /Mathieu Jaminet/Nicholas Tandy 3’24.531 5 7 Hypercar (H) Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 Mike Conway/ Kamui Kobayashi /Jose Maria Lopez 3’24.933 6 2 Hypercar (H) Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R Earl Bamber/Alex Lynn/Richard Westbrook 3’25.170 7 5 … [Read more...] about WEC 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours starting grid · RaceFans